We have school for the boys. Teaching for me. Work for my husband. Time for projects and blogging. Plus the boys are in hockey, soccer, and more hockey. I’m in yoga twice a week; and we frequently have other family gatherings and play dates. Add in home maintenance and the frequent projects and renovations around here and it can all become a bit much to manage.

So I definitely need to plan. And if you are reading this then I have a feeling that you .

I find it super helpful to spend a few minutes at the beginning and end of each day looking at what I need to focus on for that day. This is where my favourite organizational tool comes in: my daily planner.

My Daily Planner

Why I love it:

This year I have the Emily Ley Simplified Planner and I absolutely love it. There is an area to plan your day hour-by-hour from 6am through 9pm; as well as a running to do list for each day. At the bottom there is even an area of extra notes and for planning dinner! Seriously – she has thought of everything. It also has monthly calendars in addition to daily pages {read and see more about it here}.

My friend Abby has developed and released an awesome Intentional Life Planner for a very reasonable price that you can download and print out yourself if you are looking for a variation on this planner!

How I use it:

As I mentioned, I like to spend a few minutes each morning going over my day – outlining any appointments and adding important “to dos” to the list. I take a moment to think about the plans for dinner so that I remember to take anything out of the freezer (or pick extras up from the store); and jot down any important notes to remember. I also bring it along to work with me and use it to check in throughout the day so that I remember to tackle the items on my “to-do” list. Again, I check-in with it after school and then at home in the evening (for some reason I have a memory like a sieve and need to refresh it often!). Anything that I didn’t manage to get to, I transfer over to the next day; and then spend a few minutes planning my day ahead before I go to bed.

This is our families favourite way to keep all of our activities, appointments, tasks, and important bills or payments organized. I have used this wall calendar for years and years and always pick up a new one every August. It runs from August through the following December so you can start it at anytime in the year. The large lined blocks for each day are perfect for keeping everything that is going on with your busy family organized. I love this wall calendar so much that I even buy it for my friends!

How I use it:

We go through and write down everything we know is coming when we start the calendar in the Fall. Work schedules (my husbands change often), sports activities, birthdays, holidays, days off school, garbage and recycling pickup, pay days etc. etc. I use my favourite fine-line no bleed colour coded pens for different entries. The calendar is the cornerstone in our Command Center and we try to check it everyday to make sure that nothing is slipping by us! {When I’ve gotten out of the habit of checking it daily is when things have slid by us}.

These notebooks are kind of a little addiction for me. I’m always on the lookout for pretty ones and have a bit of a stockpile. They are totally for brain dumps. We all need a good brain dump now and then. I often have so many things going on in different areas of my life that I need to write it all down. Make lists. And more lists. And once I get it all out {hence: the brain dump}, then I can start to organize my lists and my calendars and my to-do lists and transfer important things into my daily planner. Really, it’s kind of therapeutic.

As you might have noticed looking around our home, I have a bit of a thing for colour. Like, really love colour and find it impacts me big time. So colour coding my notes and plans and agendas really makes sense to me.

Right now we keep all of our important information organized in various areas and files in our Command Center, but in order to further improve our organization and productivity I would like to start a family binder. My friend Abby has developed an awesome set of printables that can work into a family binder that she calls Simplify that is definitely work checking out if you are working to organize your families goals, important dates, budget etc.

I definitely swear by color coding. Some people like to make things match their decor but I have to be able to see at a glance what “category” things fall into. I carry my color coordinating from my Google calendar, to the wall calendar and my paper planner!

I don’t get used to noting things or making to-do-list because I’m too lazy and don’t have enough time. I just try to remember in my mind. Before going out, I will recheck whether I forget something or not. However, it seems that my mind doesn’t work well these days so maybe I should look for some helpful tools like what you have mentioned above. Thanks in advance!

I only recently figured out that I need to use a paper organizer (instead of using my phone!). It reminds me of being back in school, LOL! I don’t know why it took me so long to start using them, but now that I have, I love the convenience of having it – the ease of use compared to any electronic calendar is amazing!

Dropping by from the Inspire me Monday Linky! Hope you have a great week!

Well. you have a lot of lovely tools to organise your day. Thanks so much for share them and the way to use them efficiently. I think i will use them for myself my kids, teach them to make plans perfectly lol.